14 January 2015

New Zealand fines a spammer $12,000

Last July the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs took spammer Zeljko Aksentijevic to court for violating their anti-spam law. Today the court fined him $12,000 for sending 2,230 illegal commercial messages. This is the first case in NZ where a spammer has appeared in court and defended himself, so this sets an important precedent that the law is indeed valid and can be enforced.

The spam in question was send to members of a gaming forum, and promoted the sender's free Android app. Even though the app was free, the spam was illegal because it was unsolicited, did not include accurate sender information; and had no working unsubscribe. More details are available in the DIA's press release.

CAUCE has long believed that enforcable anti-spam laws are a key part of the ongoing effort against spam, with predictable modest penalties that remove the profit from spam.